Posts

Showing posts from December, 2011

What Is Enterprise Architecture Anyway?

Image
There aren't a lot of books on enterprise architecture , never mind good books. The Art of Enterprise Information Architecture  by Godinez et al (IBM Press, 2010) fills a big void . I recommend the book for an excellent overview of enterprise architecture (EA) and reference architecture (RA), followed by a detailed discussion on Enterprise Information Architecture (EIA) and an EIA RA. The authors define architecture as well as EA. They provide an overview of EA as well as RA, noting that there are various elements of an architecture including business architecture, application architecture, security architecture, and, of course, information architecture (IA) . After the introductory chapters, the book launches into a detailed discussion on IA, EIA, and a RA for EIA. EIA is explored in terms of multiple views (conceptual, logical) and models (component, operational). As the authors explain, the key that explains the "enterprise" in an EA is the manner in which an E